JP 2013-012327 A, for example, discloses that an electrode sheet is manufactured by coating a binder solution on an electrode current collector, thereafter depositing powder containing an active material and a binder thereon, and pressing the deposited layer in a thickness direction while heating the deposited layer.
JP 2013-143304 A discloses a method of manufacturing an electrode sheet by powder molding. The publication discloses that an electrode sheet is formed by granulating an electrode mixture containing graphite while applying a magnetic field thereto to obtain an electrode mixture powder, then feeding the resultant powder onto the current collector foil, and then pressing the current collector foil.
JP 2013-134897 A discloses the following. A hot melt binder aqueous solution in a liquid state is applied onto the surface of a sheet-shaped current collector and dried, and granulated particles containing active material particles and a binder are fed onto the surface of the current collector. Then, the current collector, the hot melt binder layer, and the granulated particles are compressed in a thickness direction of the current collector, while being heated.
As described above, various publications disclose that an electrode sheet having an active material layer formed On a current collector is manufactured by depositing powder of granulated particles containing an active material and a binder on a current collector and compressing the deposited powder and the current collector in a thickness direction. On the other hand, there is another method of manufacturing an electrode sheet. The method involves coating a current collector with a mixture paste containing an active material and a binder mixed with a solvent, and drying the paste, to form an active material layer. The method of coating a current collector with a mixture paste and drying the paste to form an active material layer is introduced as prior art in, for example, JP 2013-134897 A.